biology

Syracuse dish

Syracuse dish is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Syracuse dish rather than just read about it. In short: A Syracuse dish or Syracuse watch glass is a shallow, circular, flat-bottomed dish of thick glass. Usually, it is 67 mm in outer diameter and 52 mm in inner diameter.

Key takeaways

Syracuse dish belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Syracuse dish to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Syracuse dish from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

A Syracuse dish or Syracuse watch glass is a shallow, circular, flat-bottomed dish of thick glass. Usually, it is 67 mm in outer diameter and 52 mm in inner diameter.

Background Nathan Cobb, one of the pioneers of nematology in the United States, was the first who suggested using the syracuse dish for counting nematodes in 1918.

Uses It is used as laboratory equipment in biology for either storage or culturing.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Syracuse dish

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Syracuse dish claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Syracuse dish before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Syracuse dish ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Syracuse dish

In research: Syracuse dish appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Syracuse dish in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Syracuse dish is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Laboratory glassware, Microbiology equipment, Microbiology stubs, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Syracuse dish outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Syracuse dish in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Syracuse dish means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Syracuse dish out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Syracuse dish in simple terms?

A Syracuse dish or Syracuse watch glass is a shallow, circular, flat-bottomed dish of thick glass. Usually, it is 67 mm in outer diameter and 52 mm in inner diameter.

Why does Syracuse dish matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Syracuse dish?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Syracuse dish.